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Robert  Browning  s  Poetry 


The  development  of  a  soul ;  little  else  is  worth  study  " 


Otctline  Stttdies 


PUBLISHED  FOR  THE  CHICAGO  BROWNING  SOCIET 


.■^^:.,H■^.;^^h^/ 


CHICAGO 

CHARLES  H.  KERR  d:  COM  PANT 

lyj  Dearborn  Street 

1886 


f6'2 


•>  7 


COPYRIGHT   BY 

CHARLES  H.  KERR  &  COMPANY 

iSS6 


CONTENTS. 


PAGB 

Prefatory  Note 4 

A  Classification  of  the  Entire  Writings  of  Robert  Browning  .  5 

Shorter  Programmes 31 

Chronological  List 35 

Helps  to  the  Study  of  Browning 40 

The  Chicago  Browning  Society 41 

Rules  for  Literary  Clubs 42 

Browning  and  the  Critics 43 

Lectures  and  Papers •         •         .46 

Constitution,  Officers,  and   Members  of  the  Chicago    Browning 

Society 47 

Plan  of  Work  for  1886-7 50 

Advertisements 5' 


43449,(5 


These  outlines  have  been  prepared  with  the  hope  that  thejmay 
help  in  the  study  of  a  poet  whose  works  evince  the  highest  poetic  art 
and  insight,  works  which  are  so  numerous  and  varied  in  character 
that  they  constitute,  as  Canon  Farrar  says,  "  a  literature  in  them- 
selves." 

The  order  in  which  the  poems  of  R  obert  Browning  shall  be  studied 
is  an  important  question,  though  fortunately  one  that  permits  of 
various  answers,  each  of  which  will  yield  good  results.  The  order 
set  forth  in  the  accompanying  outline  is  the  result  of  considerable 
experience  as  well  as  much  thought,  and  it  is  hoped  will  commend 
itself  to  many.  But  others  will  prefer  to  begin  with  the  love  poems 
or  the  dramas,  which  display  the  poet's  most  characteristic  quality. 
He  is  always  dramatic  Whatever  form  or  style  he  uses,  his  writings 
are  everywhere  permeated  by  the  spirit  of  a  living,  struggling  hu- 
manity. 

*"  Man's  thoughts  and  loves  and  hates. 
Earth  is  my  vineyard,  these  grew  there." 

One  club  in  New  York  began  with  "  Sordello  "  and  courageously 
carried  the  study  through  three  years,  although  it  is  the  poem  upon 
which  chiefly  rests  the  poet's  reputation  for  obscurity.  Other  classes 
have  begun  with  "  The  Ring  and  The  Book." 

Whatever  order  is  pursued,  the  student  of  Browning,  like  that  of 
any  other  poet,  had  better  pursue  his  work  in  his  own  way.  The 
best  results  are  attained  in  the  open  mind,  equally  devoid  of  preju- 
dice and  conceit,  which  acquires  its  own  power  of  judging  and  makes 
its  own  application  of  the  truths  and  lessons  taught. 

♦Epilogfue  to  Pacchiarotto. 

(4) 


A  CLASSIFICATION 

Of  the  entire  writings  of  Robert  Browning,  arranged  for  the 
guidance  of  clubs  and  classes,  with  a  few  notes  added,  containing 
information  not  found  in  the  text. 

Those  shrinking  from  the  long  course  can  readily  and  profitably 
elect  such  numbers  as  attract  them. 

The  abbreviations  refer  to  titles  of  books  in  the  American 
edition.    See  chronological  list,  page  35. 


1. 

1.  Biography  and  Bibliography  of  Browning,     (a.) 

2.  Popular  Poems. 

v/Xhe  Pied  Piper  of  Hameiin.  D.  P.  (d.) 
The  Boy  and  the  Angel.  D.  P.  (c.) 
The  Twins.  M.  and  W.  (d.) 
■  v/How  They  brought  the  Good  News  from  Ghent 
to  Aix.  D.  P.  (e.) 

(a.)  See  article  by  E.  W,  Gosse  in  Scridner's^  Dec.  18S1 ;  London 
Browning  Society  Papers,  Part  I ;  *'  Poets  and  Problems,"  by  George 
W.  Cooke;  Stedman's  "Victorian  Poets."  A  good  portrait  of  the 
poet  is  published  in  Illustrations,  Part  II.     L.  B.  S. 

(b.)  Written  for  the  little  son  of  the  actor,  William  Macready. 

(c)  Compare  Longfellow's  "  King  Robert  of  Sicily." 

(d.)  This  parable  is  told  by  Martin  Luther  in  his  "Table  Talk." 
This  poem  was  published  with  Mrs,  Browning's  "  A  Plea  for  the 
Ragged  Schools  of  London."  "  These  two  poems  were  printed  by 
Miss  Arabella  Barrett,  Mrs.  Browning's  sister,  for  a  bazaar  to  benefit 
the  '  Refuge  for  Young  Destitute  Girls,'  one  of  the  first  refuges  of 
the  kind,  and  still  in  existence. ^^—Londo?i  Bro-wning  Society  Papers. 

(5) 


6  ROBER  T  BR  I  WNING  '6  POE  TR  T. 

(e.)  This  ride  is  supposed  to  have  occurred  during  the  Dutch  war 
of  Independence,  early  in  the  seventeentli  century.  The  following 
extract  is  from,  a  letter  written  by  Mr.  Browning:  "There  is  no  sort 
of  historical  foundation  about  '  Good  News  from  Ghent.'  I  wrote  it 
under  the  bulwark  of  a  vessel  off  the  African  coast,  after  I  had  been 
at  sea  long  enough  to  appreciate  even  the  fancy  of  a  gallop  or)  the 
back  of  a  certain  good  horse  '  York,'  then  in  my  stable  at  home." 

11. 

Poems  of  Heroism. 

<y    I.  Incident  of  a  French  camp.  D.  P.  {a.) 
2.  Pheidippides.  Ag.  (b.) 
.  3.  Echetlos.  Ag.  (c.) 
y  4.  Herv6  Riel.  F.  (^.) 

/  5.  Tray.  Ag.  (^.) 
v/   6.  The  Patriot.     M.  &  W.  (/.) 

7.  Clive.  Ag.  {g) 

8.  The  Lost  Leader,  (/z.)  • 

(a.)  The  story  of  this  poem  is  true  with  the  exception  that  its  hero 
was  not  a  boy  but  a  full-grown  man. 

{Jj)  "  The  facts  related  in  '  Pheidippides '  belong  to  Greek  legendary 
history  and  are  told  by  Herodotus  and  other  writers.  When  Athens 
was  threatened  by  the  invading  Persians,  she  sent  a  running  messen- 
ger to  Sparta  to  demand  help  against  the  foreign  foe.  The  mission 
was  unsuccessful  but  the  runner  Pheidippides  fell  in  on  his  return 
with  the  god  Pan;  and  although  alone  among  Greeks,  the  Athenians 
had  refused  to  honor  him.  he  promised  to  fight  with  them  in  the  com- 
ing battle.  Pheidippides  was  present  when  this  battle — that  of  Mara- 
thon— was  fought  and  won." — Mrs.  Orr's  '•'■  Handbook P 

He  ran  once  again  and  announced  the  victory  at  Athens.  The  re- 
lease from  toil  which  Pan  promised  him  as  a  reward  for  his  labors 
was  not  the  release  he  had  expected.  Marathon  was  well-known  as 
the  »  fennel-field." 

(c.)  This  is  another  legend  of  the  battle  of  Marathon.  The  word 
'  Echetlos "  means  "  Holder  of  the  Ploughshare."  A  picture  of 
Echetlos  was  in  Athens. 

(ff.)  A  true  story  of  1692. 


ROBER  T  BRO  WNING  'S  POETR  T.  7 

{e.)  This  scene  really  occurred  in  Paris.  The  poem  is  a  biting  sar- 
casm, directed  against  vivisection,  which  the  poet  has  repeatedlj 
called  "  an  infamous  practice.'' 

(/".)  In  the  first  edition  the  scene  of  this  poem  was  laid  in  Brescia, 
but  subsequently  the  name  of  the  city  was  omitted  and  the"  signifi- 
cance of  its  universal  application  thereby  heightened. 

(g.)  "That  part  of  the  poem,  in  which  Clive  says  that  if  the  bully 
had,  instead  of  confessing  himself  a  cheat,  pardoned  Clive  and  spared 
his  life,  he  should  have  picked  up  the  weapon  cast  away  by  his  foe 
and  used  it  on  himself,  is  Browning's  own  invention.  Reconsidered 
it  a  legitimate  deduction  from  the  fact  that,  when  Clive  had  to  face 
an  inquiry  into  his  conduct,  he  destroyed  himself.  On  the  day  of 
Lord  Clive's  death,  a  lady,  who  was  staying  in  the  house,  asked  him 
to  come  in  and  mend  a  pen  for  her.  Such  was  his  nerve  that  he  did 
so  and  then  went  into  the  next  room  and  cut  his  throat  with  the  very 
penknife  he  had  used  in  her  service." — L.  Br.  S.  Papers. 

(Ji.)  Refers  to  Wordsworth,  for  his  defection,  with  Southey  and 
others,  from  the  liberal  cause.  \ 

III. 

Art— Poetry  and  Poets. 

1.  How  It  Strikes  A  Contemporary.     M.  and  W. 

2.  Transcendentalism.     M.  and  W.  {a.) 

3.  "  Touch  Him  Ne'er  So  Lightly."     Epilogue  to 

Dramatic  Idyls.     Ag.  {b.) 

4.  Memorabilia.     M.  and  W. 

5.  Epilogue  to  Pacchiarotto.  {c.) 

7.  At  The  Mermaid.     Pac.  {d.) 

8.  House.     Pac.  (e.) 

9.  Popularity.     M.  and  W.  (/.) 

{a.)  Johannes  Teutonicus,  a  canon  of  Halberstadt,  in  Germany, 
after  he  had  performed  a  number  of  prestigious  feats  almost  incredi- 
ble, was  transported  by  the  Devil  in  the  likeness  of  a  black  horse^ 
and  was  both  seen  and  heard  upon  one  and  the  same  Christmas  Day 
to  sav  mu'^s  in  Halberstadt,  in  Mayntz  and  in  Cologne." — Heyivoocfs 
'-''Hierarchy^''  Book  IV. 


8         ROBER T  BRO  WNING  'S  POETR T. 

{b.)  These  lines  were  taken  bj  critics  as  referring  to  Browning's 
own  poetry.  On  writing  them  again  in  the  album  of  Mrs.  R.  H. 
Dana  (Miss  Edith  Longfellow)  he  added  the  following  lines: 

Thus  I  wrote  in  London,  musing  on  my  betters, 
Poets  dead  and  gone;  and  lo,  the  critics  cried,  '' 

"  Out  on  such  a  boast!  "  as  if  I  dreamed  that  fetters 
Binding  Dante,  bind  up  me!  as  if  true  pride 
Were  not  also  humble ! 

So  I  smiled  and  sighed 
As  I  oped  your  book  in  Venice  this  bright  morning, 
Sweet,  new  friend  of  mine!  and  felt  the  clay  or  sand — 
Whatsoe'er  my  soil  be, — break — for  praise  or  scorning — 
Out  in  grateful  fancies — weeds,  but  weeds  expand 
Almost  into  flowers,  held  by  such  a  kindly  hand. 

(c.)  This  is  spoken  directly  by  Mr.  Browning  himself  and  is  a 
criticism  of  his  critics.  The  words  "The  poets  pour  us  wine  "  at  the 
beginning  of  the  poem  are  quoted  from  Mrs.  Browning's  "Wine  of 
Cyprus'." 

{d.)  Browning  speaks  here  behind  the  mask  of  Shakespeare.  To 
"  throw  Venus  "  was  to  throw  the  highest  cast  at  Roman  dice. 

(e.)  See  Wordsworth's  Sonnet,  "  Scorn  not  the  Sonnet." 

(/.)  Compare  George  Eliot's  "  Jubal." 


IV. 

Art — Poetry  Continued. 

1.  The  Two  Poets  of  Croisic.     Ag.  {a.) 

2.  Essay  on  Shelley.     B.  S.  Papers,  (b.) 

(a.)  Le  Croisic  is  situated  in  the  southeastern  corner  of  Brittany. 
Sardine  fishing  and  the  crystallization  of  sea  salt  are  still  the  chief  oc- 
cupations of  the  villagers.  Rene  Gentilhomme  lived  in  the  first  half 
of  the  seventeenth  century,  and  Paul  Desforges  Maillard  about  a 
hundred  years  later.  The  story  of  the  later  poet  forms  the  subject 
of  a  famous  play,  Piron's  "  Metromanie." 

(5.)  The  Essay  on  Shelley  was  written  about  the  year  1851  to  serve 
as  an  introduction  to  some  Shelley  Letters.  These  letters  were  after- 
wards discovered  to  be  a  forgery  and  the  book  was  suppressed,  but 
they  gave  Browning  a  chance  of  writing  about  the  art  of  the  poet  he 
admired. 


R UBER  T  BRO  WNING  'S  POE  TR  T.  9 

V. 

Art—Fainting  and  Painters. 

^  I.  Fra  Lippo  Lippi.     M.  and  W.  (a.) 
^2.  Andrea  del  Sarto.     M.  and  W.  (3.) 

3.  The  Guardian  Angei.     M.  and  VV.  (c.) 

4.  Pictor  Ignotus.     D.  P. 

(a.)  The  story  of  the  life  of  this  well-known  painter,  as  told  here 
by  himself,  is  historical,  even  to  the  incident  of  tht  escapade  from  the 
palace  of  Cosmo  de  Medici,  who  had  shut  him  up  to  finish  his  paint- 
ing The  picture  which  he  describes  is  that  of  "  The  Coronation  of 
the  Virgin,"  still  in  Florence.  "Hulking  Tom"  was  the  painter 
known  as  Masaccio.     See  Lowell's  poem  of  that  name. 

{b)  The  facts  related  here  are  also  historical  in  substance,  though 
certain  chroniclers  present  the  character  of  Lucrezia  more  favorably. 
The  king  was  Francis  I.  ' 

(c.)  This  describes  an  actual  picture,  imputed  to  Guercino  and  now 
in  the  church  of  St.  Augustine  at  Fano  on  the  coast  of  Italy.  The 
"  Alfi-ed  "  of  the  same  poem  is  the  friend  referred  to  in  the  poem 
of  "  Waring  " — Alfred  Domett,  then  prime  minister  o\  New  Zea- 
land. The  London  Browning  Society  have  published  photograph 
illustrations  of  this  picture,  also  of  Andrea  del  Sarto's  picture  of 
himself  and  his  wife  in  the  Pitti  gallery  at  Florence,  which  suggested 
the  poem,  and  Fra  Lippo's  picture  of  the  "  Coronation." 


VI. 

Art— Painting  and  Sculpture. 

I.   Old  Pictures  in  Florence.     M.  and  W.  (a.) 
3.  Eurydice.  ((5.) 

3.  A  Face.     D.  P. 

4.  Deaf  and  Dumb.     A  Group  by  Woolner.  (c.) 

(a.)  Stanzas  26,  27,  28.  Bijordi  is  the  family  name  of"  Domenico," 
called  "  Ghirlandajo "  from  the  family  trade  of  ^^reath-making. 
■' Landro  "  stands  for  Alessandro  Botticelli.  "  Lippino  "  was  son  of 
,Fra   Lippo    Lippi.     Mr.   Browning  alludes  to  him   as  "wi-onged," 


lo  RUBER  T  BRO  WNING  'S  POE TR  T. 

because  others  were  credited  with  some  of  his  best  work.  Lorenzo 
Monaco  (the  monk)  was  a  contemporary,  or  nearly  so,  of  Fra 
Angelico,  but  more  severe  in  manner.  "  Pollajolo  "  was  both  painter 
and  sculptor.  "  Margheritone  of  Arezzo "  was  one  of  the  earlier 
Old  Masters  and  died,  as  Vasari  states,  infastidito  (deeply  annoyed) 
by  the  success  of  Giotto  and  the  "  new  school,"  hence  the  funeral 
garb  in  which  Mr.  Browning  depicts  him. 

"  Mr.  Browning  possesses  or  possessed  pictures  by  all  the  artists 
mentioned  in  this  connection." — Mrs.  Orr. 

The  translations  of  Vasari  (which  may  be  found  in  Bohn's  Stand- 
ard Library)  give  accounts  of  three  painters. 

The  story  of  Giotto's  O  is  told  in  every  description  of  the  painter, 
but  the  fact  that  in  some  editions  O  Avas  misprinted  "  Oh  "  might 
cause  some  confusion. 

The  *'  dotard,"  who  was  to  be  pitched  across  the  Alps  before  free- 
dom could  be  restored  to  Florence  and  art  revive,  was  the  Grand 
Duke. 

(3.)  This  poem  is  not  included  in  the  American  edition  of  Brown- 
ing's works.  It  is  the  poet's  interpretation  of  a  picture  by  F- 
Leighton. 

"But  give  them  me — the  mouth,  the  eyes,  the  brow! 
Let  them  once  more  absorb  me!     One  look  now 

Will  lap  me  round  forever,  not  to  pass 
Out  of  its  light,  though  darkness  lie  beyond! 
Hold  me  but  safe  again  within  the  bond 

Of  one  immortal  look !  all  woe  tb.at  was 
Forgotten,  and  all  terror  that  may  be 
Defied ;  no  past  is  mine,  no  future  I     Look  at  me !" 

(c.)  This  poem  is  also  unfortunately  omitted  from  certain  editions. 
It  consists  of  eight  lines  written  for  Woolner's  group  of  Constance 
and  Arthur,  the  deaf  and  dumb  children  of  Sir  Thomas  Fairbairn. 
The  group  was  exhibited  in  the  International  Exhibition  of  1862. 

"  Only  the  prism's  obstruction  shows  aright 
The  secret  of  a  sunbeam,  breaks  its  light 
Into  the  jeweled  bow  from  blankest  white  : 

So  may  a  glory  from  defect  arise : 
Only  by  Deafness  may  the  vexed  Love  wreak 
Its  insuppressive  sense  on  brow  and  cheek, 
Only  by  Dumbness  adequately  speak 

As  favored  mouth  could  never,  through  the  eyes. ' 


ROBERT  BRO  i VNING  'S  POETRT.  1 1 

VII. 

Art.— Music. 

1 .  A  Toccata  of  Galluppi's.     M.  and  W.  {a) 

2.  Master  Hugues  of  Saxe  Gotha.     M.  and  W. 

3.  Abt  Vogler.     D.  P. 

{a.)  "The  Venetian  Baldassarre  Galuppi,  surnamed  Buranello,  was 
an  immensely  prolific  composer,  and  abounded  in  melodj,  tender, 
pathetic  and  brilliant." — Studies  of  the  Eighteenth  Cetitury  in  Italy ^ 
by  Vernon  Lee. 

ip.)  The  Abbe  Vogler  lived  from  1749  to  1S14,  and  was  the  master 
of  great  musicians,  including  Von  Weber  and  Meyerbeer.  It  is  fit- 
ting that  he  should  have  been  taken  as  the  type  of  a  great  extem- 
porizer,  since  none  of  his  work  survives.  The  beauty  and  meaning 
of  the  poem  do  not  depend  in  the  least  on  historical  associations 
connected  with  the  name. 


VIII. 

Love. 

1.  By  the  Fireside.     M.  and  W.  {a) 

2.  In  Three  Days.     M.  and  W. 

3.  One  Word  More.     M.  and  W.  {b.) 

4.  O  Lyric  Love.     R.  and  B.    Book  L,  lines  1 391  to 

1416;  Book  XII.,  lines  %6^  to  870.  (c) 

5.  Apparitions.     The    Prologue  to   Two   Poets   of 

Croisic.     Ag. 

6.  Never  the  Time  or  the  Place.    J. 

7.  Wanting — is  What?    J. 

8.  A  Wall.     Prologue  to  Pacchiarotto. 

{a)  These  are  the  poems  generally  accepted  as  written  directly  to 
Mrs.  Browning.  Notice  in  "  By  the  Fireside "  the  poet's  plan  for 
work  to  be  done  some  time  in  Greek  literature,  which  he  has  since 
carried  out. 


12  ROBERT  BRO  WNING  'S  POETR  r. 

(3.)  This  form  of  blank  verse  which  the  poet  uses  here,  "  the  first 
time  and  the  last  time,"  is  so  musical  that  one  never  misses  the  rhyme. 
Bice  is  a  common  abbreviation  for  Beatrice. 

(c.)  With  this  invocation  in  mind,  it  is  interesting  to  study  all  the 
prologues  and  epilogues  of  the  books  Browning  has  published  since. 


IX. 

Love  —Mutual  Love. 

1.  Meeting  at  Night,     D.  P. 

2.  Parting  at  Morning.     D.  P. 

3.  Love  Among  the  Ruins„     M.  and  W. 

4.  Mesmerism.     M.  and  W. 

^.  A  Lover's  Quarrel.     M.  and  W. 

Ve.  The  Flower's  Name,     D.  P. 

7.  Respectability.     M.  and  W. 

8.  In  a  Gondola.     D.  P.  (^.) 

(a.)  This  poem  was  suggested  by  a  picture  of  Maclise. 


X. 


L     Love — Self  Renunciation. 

v/  I.  The  Lost  Mistress.     D.  P. 

2.  The  Last  Ride  Together.     M.  and  W. 

3.  A  Serenade  at  the  Villa.     M.  and  W. 

IL     Love— Unsatisfied. 

1.  Tw^o  in  the  Campagna.     M.  and  W. 

2.  A  Pretty  Woman.     M.  and  W. 

3.  Youth  and  Art.     D.  P. 

4.  St,  Martin's  Summer,     Pac, 


ROBER T  BRO  WNING  'S  POETRT^  13 

XL 

Love— The  Woman's  Side. 

1.  Ill  a  Year.     M.  and  W. 

2.  A  Woman's  Last  Word.     M.  and  W. 

3.  Any  Wife  to  Any  Husband.     M.  and  W. 

4.  James  Lee's  Wife.     D.  P.  {a^ 

(a.)  The  wife  speaks  throughovit.  This  poem  is  interesting  in  rep- 
resenting different  periods  in  the  poet's  life  and  power.  The  song  in 
Part  VI,  was  written  by  Browning  in  1S36 — the  poem  itself  pubHshed 
in  1864;  important  additions  made  in  Part  VIII.  in  1872,  not  in 
American  edition,  found  in  Crowell's  "Red  Line"  selections,  and 
in  L.  Br.  S.  Papers,  Part  I.,  p.  59. 

XIL      . 

Love— On  One  Side. 

1.  Rudel  to  tiie  Lady  of  Tripoli.     D.  P.  (a.) 

2.  Cristina.     D.  P.  {b) 

3.  Mary  Wollstonecraft  and  Fuseli.     J. 

4.  A  Likeness.     D.  P. 

5.  Numpholeptos.     Pac. 

((2.)  Rudel  was  a  troubadour  of  the  twelfth  century,  and  it  is 
related  in  "  Tales  of  the  Troubadours  "  that  he  loved  the  Lady  of 
Tripoli. 

(<5.)  This  was  meant  for  a  young  man  who  fell  in  love  with  Queen 
Cristina  of  Spain  and  became  insane. — L.  Br.  S.  Papers. 


XIIL" 

Love — Incomplete. 

1.  Tiie  Statue  and  the  Bust.     M.  and  W.  {a) 

2.  The  Worst  of  it.     D.  P, 

3.  Too  Late.     D.  P. 


14  ROBERT  BROWNING'S  POETRT. 

4.  Dis  Alitur  Visum.  Le  Byron  de  Nos  Jours.  D.  P. 

5.  Bifurcation.     Pac. 

6.  Appearances.     Pac. 

7.  Confessions.     D.  P. 

(a.)  The  Bust  was  invented  by  Browning.  The  Statue  is  that  of 
the  "  Great-Duke  Ferdinand  "  in  the  square  of  the  Santissima  Annun- 
ziata  in  Florence.  According  to  tradition,  the  duke  loved  a  lady  who 
lived  in  the  Riccardi  Palace,  at  one  corner  of  the  square,  whom  he 
could  see  only  at  her  window,  and  that  he  had  his  statue  placed  where 
it  would  look  in  that  direction.  Browning  tells  us  that  the  bust  was 
executed  in  della  Robia  ware.  Specimens  of  this  work  adorn  the 
cornice  of  the  palace. 

"  The  crime  alluded  to  in  the  poem  as  darkening  the  Medici  palace, 
and  casting  its  shadow  on  the  adjacent  street,  was  the  murder  of 
Alexander,  Duke  of  Florence,  in  1836." — Airs  Orr. 

This  is  written  in  the  Italian  terza  rima,  and  is  a  good  illustration 
of  Browning's  facility  in  difficult  meters. 


XIV. 

Love— Tragedy. 

^i.  Porphyria's  Lover.     D.  P. 

2.  Martin  Relph.     Ag. 

3.  A  Forgiveness.     Pac.  {a.) 
v^.   The  Laboratory.     D.  P. 
v/5.  The  Confessional. 

6.  Cristina  and  Monaldeschi.  {b.) 


{a.)  Mr.  Browning  owns  a  collection  of  "arms  of  eastern  workman- 
ship," just  such  as  is  described  here. 

{b.)  An  interesting  description  of  Queen  Cristina  may  be  found  in 
"  Madame  de  Sevigne  and  her  Contemporaries,"  by  Mile,  de  Mont- 
pensier.  Avon  is  the  village  on  the  east  side  of  the  park  of  Fontaine- 
bleau.     Monaldeschi  was  buried  in  its  little  church. 


ROBERT  BROWNING'S  POETRT.  15 

XV. 

Love. 

I.  In  a  Balcony.     M.  and  W. 

Give  special  attention  to  the  different  character-studies.  Constance 
and  the  Queen  are  among  the  most  subtile  characters  in  Browning. 

XVI. 
Love  Lyrics. 

1.  Misconceptions.     M.  and  W. 

2.  My  Star.     M.  and  W, 

3.  Love  in  a  Life.     M.  and  W. 

4.  Life  in  a  Love.     M.  and  W. 

5.  One  Way  of  Love.     M.  and  W. 

6.  Another  Way  of  Love.     M.  and  W. 

7.  Women  and  Roses.     M.  and  W. 

8.  Natural  Magic.     Pac. 

9.  Magical  Nature.     Pac. 

10.  Song.     D.  P. 

11.  Earth's  Immortalities,  II.     Love.     D.  P, 

XVIL 
Jewish  Poems. 

1.  Holy  Cross  Day.     M.  and  W. 

2.  Filippo    Baldinucci    on    the  Privilege  of  Burial. 

Pac.  {a) 

3.  JocHanan  Hakkadosh.    J.  (<^.) 

(a.)  "  Filippo  Baldinucci  was  the  author  of  a  history  of  art,  and  the 
incident  which  Mr.  Browniog  relates  as  a  reminiscence  of  A.  D.  1670, 
appears  there  in  a  notice  of  the  life  of  the  painter  Buti." — Mrs.  Orr. 

{b)  In  the  note  at  the  conclusion  of  the  poem  "Mr.  Browning  pro- 
fesses to  rest  his  narrative  on  a  Rabbinical  work,  of  which  the  title, 
given  b^-  him  in  Hebrew,  means  '  Collection  of  many  lies ; '  and  he 


i6  ROBERT  BROWNING'S  POETRT. 

adds,  bj  way  of  supplement,  three  sonnets,  supposed  to  illustrate  the 
equally  fictitious  proverb  '  From  Moses  to  Moses,  never  was  one  like 
Moses,'  and  embodj^ing  as  many  fables  of  wildly  increasing  audacity. 
The  main  story  is  nevertheless  justified  by  traditional  Jewish  belief." 

"The  three  days'  survival  of  the  'Ruach'  or  spirit  allowed  to 
departed  saints,  is  aTalmudic  doctrine  still  held  among  the  Jews. 

"  The  '  Helaphta  '  was  a  noted  Rabbi,  The  '  Bier  '  and  the  '  Three 
Daughters'  was  a  received  Jewish  name  for  the  constellation  of  the 
Great  Bear.  The  '  Salem  '  is  the  mystical  New  Jerusalem  to  be  built 
of  the  spirits  of  the  great  and  good." — Mrs.  Orr. 

XVIII. 

Early  Christian  Poems. 

1.  Cleon.     M.  and  W.  (^.) 

2.  An  Epistle.     M.  and  W. 

3.  A  Death  in  the  Desert.     D.  P.  (3.) 

(«.)  The  line  from  the  address  of  Paul  to  the  Athenians — Acts 
xvii.,  28 — indicates  that  Cleon  is  supposed  to  be  one  of  those  Greek 
poets,  living  at  the  very  time  Paul  is  preaching  the  doctrine  of  the 
resurrection  of  the  dead. 

{b!)  "  This  is  the  record  of  an  imaginary  last  scene  in  the  life  of 
St.  John  It  is  conceived  in  perfect  harmony  with  the  facts  of  the 
case;  the  great  age  which  the  Evangelist  attained;  the  mystery 
Avhich  shrouded  his  death ;  the  persecutions  which  had  overtaken  the 
church ;  the  heresies  which  already  threatened  to  disturb  it ;  but  Mr. 
Browning  has  given  to  his  St.  John  a  fore-knowledge  of  that  age  of 
philosophic  doubt  in  which  its  very  foundations  would  be  shaken." — 
Mrs.  Orr. 

This  poem  was  the  poet's  contribution  to  the  discussion  that  was 
aroused  by  the  appearance  of  Strauss's  "  Life  of  Jesus." 

XIX.  V. 

other  ReHgious  Poems. 

I.  The  Heretic's  Tragedy;  a  Middle- Age  Interlude. 
M.  and  W.  («.) 


ROBERT  BROWNING'S  POETRT.  17 

2.  Johannes  Agricola  in  Meditation.     D.  P.  (3.) 

3.  Christmas  Eve.     D.  P. 

4.  Easter  Day.     D.  P. 

5.  Fears  and  Scruples.     Pac. 

6.  Epilogue  to  Dramatis  Personae. 

(a.)  "This  heretic  is  Jacques  du  Bourg.Molay,  last  Grand  Master  of 
the  Order  of  Knights  Templar,  against  whom  preposterous  accusa- 
tions had  been  brought.  This  Jacques,  whom  the  speaker  erroneously 
calls  'John,'  and  who  might  stand  for  any  victim  of  middle-age 
fanaticism,  was  burned  in  Paris  in  1314;  and  the  'Interlude,'  we  are 
told,  '  would  seem  to  be  a  reminiscence  of  this  event,  as  distorted  by 
two  centuries  of  refraction  from  Flemish  brain  to  brain.'" — Mrs.  Orr. 

{b.)  "  The  speaker,  Johannes  Agricola,  was  a  German  reformer  of 
the  sixteenth  century,  and  alleged  founder  of  the  sect  of  the  Anti- 
nomians;  a  class  of  Christians  who  extended  the  Low  Church  doc- 
trine of  the  insufficiency  of  good  works,  and  declared  the  children  of 
God  to  be  exempt  from  the  necessity  of  performing  them."--il/r*.  Orr. 

XX. 

other  Religious  Poems. 

1.  Caliban. 

2.  Saul,  (a.) 

{a.)  Compare  the  fifth  stanza  with  Matthew  Arnold's  "  Empedocles 
on  yEtna,"  especially  for  the  description  of  the  effect  of  music  on 
disordered  mental  conditions. 

XXL 

Death  and  Immortality. 

^   I.  Prospice.     D.  P.  {a.) 

2.  Apparent  Failure.     D.  P.  {b.) 

3.  Pisgah  Sights.     Pac.  {c.) 

4.  La  Saisiaz.     Ag.  (d.) 


l8  ROBER T  BRO  WNING  \S  FOB TR T. 

»^5.  Evelyn  Hope.     M.  and  W. 
v/6.  Rabbi  Ben  Ezra.     D.  P.  {e.) 
7.  Jochanan  Hakkadosh. 

(a.)  This  is  one  of  the  "  E.  B.  B."  poems.  Compare  Avith  Pope's 
"Dying  Christian,"  and  Bryant's  "  Thanatopsis/' 

(^.)  "  Mr.  Browning's  verdict  on  three  drowned  men,  whose  bodies 
he  saw  exposed  at  the  morgue  in  Paris,  in  the  summer  of  1856." 
— Mrs.  Orr. 

(c.)  These  can  hardly  be  called  poems  of  death,  or  immortality. 
They  belong  at  least  to  that  class,  where  death  is  the  interpreter  of 
life. 

{d.)  "A.  E  S.  were  the  initials  of  Miss  Anne  Egerton  Smith,  the 
proprietress  of  the  Liverpool  Mercury^  who  was  at  La  Saisiaz  with 
Browning  and  his  sister,  and  whose  sudden  death  gave  rise  to  the 
poem." — L.  Br.  S.  PaJ>ers. 

"  La  Saisiaz"  is  Savoyard  for  "  The  Sun,"  and  is  the  name  of  a 
villa  among  the  mountains  near  Geneva. 

(<?.)  Rabbi  Ben  Ezra  was  one  of  the  four  great  philosophers  or 
Lights  of  the  Jews  in  the  middle  ages,  and  lived  from  1092  to  1167. 
He  was  born  in  Toledo,  Spain,  bvxt  traveled  through  many  lands, 
including  England.  He  believed  in  a  future  life.  This  poem,  though 
put  into  the  mouth  of  the  Jewish  teacher,  is  too  great  to  be  classed 
among  the  Jewish  poems.  It  has  been  said  to  contain  "  the  whole 
philosophy  of  life."  Compare  the  potter's  song  with  Longfellow's 
"  Keramos,"  and  the  "  Rubaiyat"  of  Omar  Khayam. 

XXII. 

Romantic. 

^  I.  Childe  Roland.     M.  and  W.  (a.) 

2.  The  Flight  of  the  Duchess.     D.  P. 

3.  The  Glove.     D.  P. 

4.  Count  Gismond.     D.  P. 

5.  The  Italian  in  England.     D.  P.  {b,) 

6.  Protus.     M.  and  W. 

7.  Gold  Hair.     D.  P.  {c.) 


ROBERT  BROWNING'S  POETRT.  19 

(a.)  "All  Browning's  great  and  peculiar  qualities  as  a  poet,,lind 
their  fullest  and  most  perfect  expression  in  Childe  Roland,  which,  as 
a  feat  of  the  imagination,  surpasses  in  creative  power,  in  range  of 
thought  and  feeling,  in  vividness  and  dramatic  interest  any  poem  of 
its  kind,  which  has  been  written  since  '  Cristabel '  and  '  The  Ancient 
Mariner.'  It  is  like  these  in  its  seeming  supernatural  aspect — I  saj 
seeming,  because  there  is  nothing  in  Childe  Roland  above  and  beyond 
nature  if  we  start  with  the  poet  at  the  starting  point,  which  is  found 
near  the  end  of  the  poem.  The  origin  of  the  line  from  Shakespeare 
is  found  in  no  known  ballad  or  poem,  but  it  is  probably  from  a  lost 
part  of  'Childe  Rowland  and  Burd  Helen.'  The  coming  to  the  dark 
tower  is  not  the  beginning  but  the  end  of  the  story.  The  hero  who 
reaches  that  goal  and  boldly  asserts  himself  has  won  the  crown — his 
very  presence  there  is  victory.  These  thirty-four  stanzas  have  the 
substance  of  a  poem  or  drama  of  large  proportions." — Richard  Gratit 
White. 

(a.)  This  poem  was  written  in  one  day, 

(d.)  A  fragment  of  an  imaginary  chronicle. 

(c.)  This  story  may  be  read  in  Pornic  guide  books. 


XXIII. 


Narrative. 


1.  Halbert  and  Hob.     Ag. 

2.  Ned  Bratts.     Ag.  {a.) 

3.  Pietro  of  Abano.  (6.) 

4.  Ivan  Ivanovitch. 

5.  Muleykeh. 

6.  Donald.    J. 

(a.)  The  main  facts  of  this  narrative  are  true,  and  related  in  a  book 
by  John  Bunyan,  as  having  happened  in  Hertford.  "  Mr.  Browning 
has  turned  Hertford  into  Bedford ;  made  the  time  of  the  occurrence 
coincide  with  that  of  Bunyan's  imprisonment  there;  and  supposed 
the  evident  conversion  of  this  man  and  woman  to  be  among  the  many 
which  he  effected." — Mrs.  Orr. 


20  ^OBER T  BRO WNING 'S  POE TR~r. 

{b.)  "  Pietro,  of  Abano,  was  an  Italian  physician  and  alchemist, 
born  at  Abano,  near  Paduain,  1246,  died  about  1320.  He  is  said  to 
have  studied  Greek  at  Constantinople,  mathematics  at  Padua,  and  to 
have  been  made  a  doctor  of  medicine  and  philosophy  at  Paris.  He 
then  returned  to  Padua,  where  he  was  professor  of  medicine  and  fol- 
lowed the  Arabian  physicians,  especially  Averrhoes.  He  got  a  great 
reputation  and  charged  enormous  fees  He  hated  milk  and  cheese, 
and'swooned  at  the  sight  of  them.  His  enemies,  jealous  of  his  re- 
nown and  wealth,  denounced  him  to  the  Inquisition  as  a  magician. 
They  accused  him  of  possessing  the  Philosopher's  Stone,  and  of  mak- 
ing, with  the  devil's  hel]),  all  money  come  back  to  his  purse.  His 
trial  was  begun,  and,  had  he  not  died  naturally  in  time,  he  would  have 
been  burnt.  The  Inquisitors  ordered  his  body  to  be  burned,  and  as  a 
friend  had  taken  that  away,  they  had  his  portrait  publicly  burned  by 
the  executioner.  In  1560  a  Latin  epitaph  in  his  memory  was  put  up 
in  the  church  of  St.  Augustin.  The  Duke  of  Urbino  set  his  statue 
among  those  of  illustrious  men,  and  the  Senate  of  Padua  put  one  on 
the  gate  of  its  palace." — L.  Br.  S,  Papers. 


XXIV. 

Friendship. 

1.  Waring.     D.  P. 

2.  May  and  Death.     D.  P.  {a.) 

3.  Time's  Revenges.     D.  P. 

•/   4.    A  Light  Woman.     M,  and  W. 

{a.)  "  Surely  the  Polygonum  Persicaria,  or  Spotted  Persicaria,  is 
the  plant  alluded  to.  It  is  a  common  weed  with  purple  stains  upon 
its  rather  large  leaves;  these  spots  varying  in  size  and  vividness  of 
color,  according  to  the  nature  of  the  soil  where  it  grows.  A  legend 
attaches  to  this  plant  and  attributes  these  stains  to  the  blood  of  Christ 
having  fallen  on  its  leaves,  growmg  below  the  cross." — L.  Br.  S. 
Papers. 

This  poem  was  a  personal  utterance,  called  forth  by  the  death  of  a 
relative  whom  Mr,  Browning  dearly  loved. 


ROBER T  BRO  WNING  S  POETRY.  21 

XXV. 

Hate  and  Revenge. 

1.  Installs  Tyrannus.     M.  and  W,  {a). 

2.  Before.     M.  and  W. 

3.  After.     M.  and  W. 

4.  Soliloquy  of  a  Spanish  Cloister. 

(«.)  "  The  'present  tyrant,'  suggested  by  some  words  in  Horace,  8th 
Ode,  Book  II.  This  is  the  confession  of  a  king  who  has  been  possessed 
by  an  unreasoning  and  uncontrolled  hatred  of  one  man." — Mrs.  Orr. 


XXVI. 

Poems  of  Humour. 

1.  Up  at  a  Villa — Dov/n  in  the  City.     M.  and  W. 

2.  Sibrandiis  Schafnaburgensis.     D.  P 

3.  Doctor .     Ag.  («.) 

4.  Pacchiarotto.  (3.) 

5.  Solomon  and  Balkis.     J.  (c.) 

6.  Adam,  Lilith  and  Eve.    J. 

7.  Pambo.    J.  (^.) 

{a.)  An  old  Hebrew  legend,  founded  upon  the  saying  that  a  bad 
wife  is  stronger  than  death.  Satan  complains  in  his  character  of 
death,  that  man  has  the  advantage  of  him,  since  he  may  baffle  him, 
whenever  he  will,  by  the  aid  of  a  bad  woman.  He  undertakes  to 
show  this  in  his  own  person. 

(^.)  A  painter  of  Siena,  generally  confounded  with  Girolamo  del 
Pacchia.  These  incidents  in  the  poem  are  historical,  and  related  in 
Vasari. 

(c.)  The  Talmudic  version  of  the  dialogue  between  Solomon  and 
the  queen  of  Sheba.  The  ring  bore  the  Supreme  name  and  com- 
pelled the  person  towards  whom  it  was  turned,  to  speak  the  truth. 


32  ROBERT  BROWNING'S  POETRT. 

{d.)  The  name  of  Pambo  or  Pambus  is  known  to  literature  as  that 
of  a  foolish  person,  who  spent  months,  Mr.  Browning  says  years,  in 
the  pondering  a  simple  passage  from  Psalm  39. 


XXVII. 

National  and  Political  Feeling. 

1.  Cavalier  Tunes.     D.  P. 

2.  De  Gustibus.     M.  and  W. 

3.  Home  Thoughts  from  Abroad.     D.  P. 

4.  Home  Thoughts  from  the  Sea.     D,  P.  {a.) 

5.  The  Italian  in  England.     D.  P. 

6.  The  Englishman  in  Italy.     D.  P. 

7.  Through  the  Metidja  to  Abd-el-Kadr.  D.  P.  {b.) 

{a.)  "  Here  and  here "  is  said  to  refer  to  the  battles  of  Cape  St. 
Vincent  (1796)  and  Trafalgar  (1805),  and  perhaps  to  the  defence  of 
Gibraltar  (1 7S2). 

{b.)  This  represents  a  follower  of  Abd-el-Kadr  hastening  through 
the  desert  to  join  his  chief. 


XXVIII. 

Poems  of  the  Renaissance. 

^y  I.  The  Bishop  Orders  His  Tomb.     D.  P.  (a.) 

2.  My  Last  Duchess.     D.  P. 

3.  The  Grammarian's  Funeral.     M.  and  W. 

(a.)  The  Bishop's  tomb  is  entirely  fictitious,  but  something  which 
is  made  to  stand  for  it  is  shown  to  credulous  sight-seers  in  St.  Praxed's 
Church  at  Rome. 

See  "  Browning  and  the  Critics,"  page  43. 


ROBER r  BR O  WNING  'S  POETRT.  23 

XXIX. 

Unclassified  Poems. 

1.  Shop.     Pac. 

2.  Epilogue  to  Two  Poets  of  Croisic.     Ag, 

3.  Earth's  Immortahties;  Fame.     D.  P. 
^  4.  Ceiiciaja.     F.  («.) 

5.  Prologue  and  Epilogue  to  Fifine. 

(a.)  "Cenciaja"  signifies  matter  relating  to  the  Cenci;  the  word  is 
also  a  pun  on  the  meaning  of  the  plural  noun  Cenci,  rags  or  old  rags. 
The  cry  of  this,  frequent  in  Rome,  was  at  first  mistaken  bv  Shelley  for 
a  voice  urging  him  to  goon  with  his  play.  Mr.  Browning  has  used  it 
to  indicate  the  comparative  unimportance  of  his  contribution  to  the 
Cenci  story.  The  quoted  Italian  proverb  means  something  to  the 
same  effect,  that  every  trifle  will  press  in  for  notice  among  worthier 
matters  The  poem  describes  an  inciderit  extraneous  to  the  Cenci 
tragedy,  but  which  strongly  influenced  its  course. 


XXX. 

Special  Pleadings. 

1.  Bishop  Blougram's  Apology.     M.  and  W.  (a.) 

2.  Mr.  Sludge  the  Medium.     D.  P.  (3.) 

3.  Prince  Hohenstiel  Schwangau.     F.  (c.) 

(tz.)  The  original  of  this  poem  was  Cardinal  Wiseman.  It  is  said 
that  the  cardinal  reviewed  very  good  naturedly  this  poem  in  the 
"  Rambler,"  a  Romanist  journal. 

ib.)  Home,  the  spiritualist,  was  the  original  of  Sludge. 

(c.)  A  defence  of  the  doctrine  of  expediency,  and  the  monologue 
is  supposed  to  be  carried  on  by  the  late  emperor  of  the  French. 
Hohen-Schwangau  is  one  of  the  castles  of  the  King  of  Bavaria.  The 
"grim  guardian  of  the  square"  refers  to  the  statue  of  George  First 
on  horseback. 


24  *         ROBERT  BROWNING'S  POETRT. 

XXXI. 

From  Classic  Sources. 

I.    Pan  and  Luna.     Ag.  {a^ 

3.    Artemis  Prologuizes.     D.  P.  {b^ 

3,    Ixion.     J. 

(a)  This  mythical  adventure  of  Luna,  the  moon,  is  described  by 
Virgil  in  the  Georgics.  The  text  is  taken  from  the  Georgics,  "  If  it 
is  worthy  of  belief." 

(<5.)  "  This  was  suggested  hy  the  Hippolytos  of  Euripides  and  des- 
tined to  become  partof  a  larger  poem,  which  should  continue  its  story, 
Hippolytos  perishing  through  the  anger  of  Venus,  was  revived  by 
Artemis  (Diana),  and  afterwards  fell  in  love  with  one  of  her  nymphs. 
Aricia.  Mr.  Browning  imagines  that  she  has  removed  him  in  secret 
to  her  own  forest  retreat  and  is  nursing  him  back  to  life  by  the  help 
of  Esculapius,  and  the  poem  is  a  monologue  in  which  sh  -  describes 
what  has  passed  since  Phaedra's  self-betrayal  to  the  present  time. 
Hippolytos  still  lies  unconscious,  but  the  power  of  the  gi-eat  healer 
has  been  brought  to  bear  on  him,  and  the  unconsciousness  seems  only 
that  of  sleep.  The  ensuing  chorus  of  nymphs,  the  awakening  of 
Hippolytos,  and  with  it  the  stir  of  the  new  passion  with  him,  had 
already  taken  shape  in  Mr.  Browning's  mind.  Unfortunately  some- 
thing put  the  inspiration  to  flight,  and  it  did   not  return." — Mrs.  Orr. 

XXXII. 

Baiaustion's  Adventure. 

This  is  a  transcription  of  one  of  the  plays  of  Euripides,  placed 
in  an  original  setting.  Balaustion  herself  is  one  of  the  freshest  and 
most  lyrical  of  Browning's  creations. 

"Balaustion  is  a  Rhodian  girl,  brought  up  in  the  worship  of  Eu- 
ripides. The  Peloponnesian  war  has  entered  upon  its  second  stage, 
the  Athenian  fleet  has  been  defeated  at  Syracuse,  and  Rhodes,  resent- 
ing this  disgrace,  has  determined  to  take  part  against  Athens,  and 
joins  the  Peloponnesian  league.  But  Balaustion  will  not  forsake  the 
mother  city  and  persuades  her  kinsmen  to  migrate  with  her  to  it. 


ROBER  T  BRO  WNING  'S  POE  TR  r.  2  5 

Thej  take  ship  at  Kaunus,  but  the  wind  turns  them  from  their  course 
and  when  it  abates  they  find  themselves  in  strange  waters,  pursued 
by  a  pirate  bark.  They  fly  before  it  towards  what  they  hope  will  prove 
a  friendly  shore,  Balaustion  heartening  the  rowers  by  a  song  from 
^^schylus,  sung  at  the  battle  of  Salamis,  and  run  into  the  hostile 
harbor  of  Syracuse,  where  shelter  is  denied  them." — Mrs.  Orr. 

Balaustion  means  "wild  pomegranate  flower,"  and  the  girl  has  bee  A 
so  called  on  account  of  her  lyric  gifts. 

The  lines  beginning  "  I  know  too  a  great  Kaunian  painter,"  refer 
to  a  picture  by  F.  Leighton,  called  "  Hercules  wrestling  with  Death 
for  the  body  of  Alkestis,"  an  engraving  of  which  has  been  published 
by  the  London  Browning  Society. 

XXXIII. 
Aristophanes'  Apology. 

"  In  point  of  circumstance,  a  sequel  to  Balaustion's  Adventure. 
Both  turn  on  the  historical  fact  that  Euripides  was  reverenced  far 
more  by  the  non-Athenian  Greeks  than  by  the  Athenians.  Both 
contain  a  transcript  from  him." — Mrs.  Orr. 

XXXIV. 

Agamemnon. 

Asa  literal  translation  of  one  of  the  most  difficult  of  the  ancient 
Greek  tragedies.  Browning's  Agamemnon  deserves  careful  study  in 
connection  with  other  translations  of  the  same  work,  but  may  be  very 
properly  omitted  from  a  regular  Browning  course. 


XXXV. 


Dramas — Strafford. 


This  was  written  at  a  request  of  Macready  and  brought  out  by  him 
at  the  Covent  Garden  Theatre  in  1837.  "Write  me  a  play.  Browning, 
and  keep  me  from  going  to  America."  Browning  calls  this  a  play 
representing  action  in  character,  rather  than  character  inaction.  The 
portraits  in  the  play  are  historical  with  the  exception  of  Lady  Car- 


26  ROBERT  BRO  WNING  'S  FOE TR 1  \ 

lisle,  which  is  purely  imaginary.  The  Italian  boat  song  in  the  last 
scene  is  from  Redi's  Bacco,  translated  by  Leigh  Hunt.  "  Strafford" 
has  been  edited  with  notes  by  Miss  Hickey,  with  special  reference  to 
school  and  club  study,  and  published  in  a  small  volume  by  itself. 

XXX  VI. 
Dramas — Pippa  Passes. 

This  drama  illustrates  the  unconscious  influence  which  a  little  silk- 
weaver,  strolling  happily  along  the  country  lanes  during  her  brief 
lioliday,  exerts  upon  the  character  and  actions  of  those  who  only 
hear  her  songs.,  The  song,  beginning  "  Give  her  but  a  least  excuse  to 
love  me,"  refers  to  Catherine  Cornaro,  the  Venetian  queen  of  Cyprus, 
and  is  the  onlv  one  of  the  songs  which  is  based  on  any  fact. 

XXXVII. 

Dramas — Luria. 

This  is  supposed  to  be  an  episode  in  the  struggles  between  Florence 
and  Pisa. 

"  Luria  is  grave  and  somewhat  remote;  it  simply  represents  Duty 
triumphing  in  the  midst  of  intrigue,  and  with  no  motive  beyond 
duty's  self.  The  conception  is  grand,  the  result  impressive — but  it  is  a 
lesson;  the  *  Blot  in  the  Scutcheon     is  an  experience." — JoJni  Weiss. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  in  connection  with  the  passage  where  the 
secretary  refers  to  the  charcoal  sketch  of  a  Moorish  front  for  the 
unfinished  Duomo,  that  recently  such  a  sketch  has  been  actually 
found  in  the  small  museum,  Opera  del  Duomo,  at  Florence.  Brown- 
ing did  not  know  of  its  existence. 

XXXVIII. 
Dramas— Blot  in  the  Scutcheon. 

First  produced  at  the  Theatre  Royal  in  1S53.  Dickens  said  of  this 
play,  that  he  would  rather  have  written  it  than  any  work  of  modern 
times. 


ROBER  T  BRO  WNING  'S  POE  TR  T.  27 

XXXIX. 

Dramas—Colombe's  Birthday. 

''  Colombe  of  Ravestein  is  ostensibly  duchess  of  Juliers  and  Cleves, 
but  her  title  is  neutralized  by  the  Salic  law  under  which  the  duchy  is 
held;  and  though  the  duke,  her  late  father,  has  wished  to  evade  it  in 
her  behalf,  those  about  her  are  aware  that  he  had  no  power  to  do  so, 
and  that  the  legal  claimant,  her  cousin,  may  at  any  moment  assert 
his  rights.  This  happens  on  the  first  anniversary  of  her  accession, 
which  is  also  her  birthday," — Airs.  Orr. 

XL. 
Dramas — Paracelsus. 

A  dramatic  poem  in  which  the  principal  character  is  the  celebrated 
empiric  and  alchemist  of  the  sixteenth  century.  It  has  been  pro- 
nounced by  Weiss  and  others  to  be  the  loftiest  effort  of  Browning's 
genius.  Weiss  says  "  We  must  not  take  Paracelsus  as  a  drama,  but  a 
meditative  poem  too  grave  to  entertain  a  reminiscence  of  the  theatre.' 

XLI. 
Dramas — King  Victor  and  King  Charles. 

The  story  of  this  drama  is  historical,  and  can  be  found  in  a  numoer 
of  the  histories  of  this  period.  Browning's  justification  of  his  own 
view  of  the  characters  is  found  in  the  preface  to  the  play. 

XLII. 
Dramas— A  Soul's  Tragedy. 

XLIII. 
Dramas — The  Return  of  the  Druses. 

•'  The  Druses  of  Lebanon  are  a  compound  of  several  Eastern  tribes, 
owing  their  religious  system  to  a  Caliph  of  Egypt,  Hakeen  Biamr 


28  ROBER T  BRO  WNING  'S  POE TR T. 

Allah,  and  probably  their  name  to  his  confessor,  Darazi,  who  first 
attempted  to  promulgate  his  doctrine  among  them ;  some  also  impute 
to  the  Druse  nation  a  dash  of  the  blood  of  the  Crusaders.  One  of 
their  chief  religious  doctrines  was  that  of  divine  incarnations.  It 
seems  to  have  originated  in  the  pretension  of  Hakeem  to  be  himself 
one;  and  as  organized  by  the  Persian  mystic,  Hamzi,  his  vizier  and 
disciple,  it  included  ten  manifestations  of  this  kind,  of  which  Hakeem 
must  have  formed  the  last.  Mr.  Browning  has  assumed  that  in  any 
great  national  emergency  the  miracle  would  be  expected  to  recur, 
and  he  has  here  conceived  an  emergency  sufficiently  great  to  call  it 
forth," — Mrs.  Orr. 

XLIV, 
Pauline. 

"  This  poem  is,  as  its  title  declares,  a  fragment  of  a  confession.  The 
speaker  is  a  man,  probably  still  young*,  and  Pauline,  the  name  of  the 
lady  who  receives  the  confession  and  is  supposed  to  edit  it.  It  is  not, 
however,  '  fragmentary  '  in  the  sense  of  revealing  only  a  small  part 
of  the  speaker's  life,  or  of  onlv  recording  isolated  acts  from  which 
the  life  may  be  built  up.  Its  fragmentary  character  lies  in  this :  that 
while  very  explicit  as  a  record  of  feeling  and  motive,  it  is  entirely 
vague  in  respect  to  acts.  It  is  an  elaborate  retrospect  of  successive 
mental  states  big  with  the  sense  of  corresponding  misdeeds.  An 
ultra-consciousness  of  self  is  in  fact  the  key-note  of  the  entire  mental 
situation.  [The  life  of  Pauline's  lover  has  not  been  wholly  misspent, 
but  his  ultimate  object  has  been  always  the  gratification  of  self] 
We  leave  him  at  the  close  of  his  confession,  exhausted  by  the 
mental  fever,  but  released  from  it — new-born  to  a  better  life ;  though 
how  and  why  this  has  happened  is  again  part  of  the  mystery  of  the 
case.  'Pauline  '  is  the  one  of  Browning's  longer  poems,  of  which  no 
intelligible  abstract  is  possible :  a  circumstance  the  more  striking,  in 
that  it  is  perfectly  transparent  as  well  as  truly  poetical  so  far  as  its 
language  is  concerned.     *    *    * 

*'  The  defects  and  difficulties  of  Pauline  are  plainly  admitted  in  an 
editor's  note  written  in  French  and  signed  by  this  name :  and  which, 
proceeding  as  it  does  from  the  author  himself,  supplies  a  valuable 
comment  on  the  work.     *     *     * 

" '  Pauline '  did  not  take  its  place  among  the  author's  collected  works 


nOl^ERT  BROWNING'S  FOETRT.  29 

until  1867,  when  the  uniform  edition  of  them  appeared;  and  he  then 
introduced  it  by  a  preface,  in  which  he  declared  his  unwillingness  to 
publish  such  a  boyish  production,  and  gave  the  reasons  which 
induced  him  to  do  so.  The  poem  is  boyish,  or  at  all  events  youthful, 
in  poitit  of  conception ;  and  we  need  not  wonder  that  its  intellectual 
crudeness  should  have  outweighed  its  finished  poetic  beauties  in  the 
author's  mind..  It  contains,  however,  one  piece  of  mental  portraiture, 
which,  with  slight  modifications,  might  have  stood  for  Mr.  Browning 
when  he  re-edited  the  work  as  it  clearly  did  when  he  wrote  it.  It 
begins  thus :  '  I  am  made  up  of  an  intensest  life.'  The  tribute  to 
the  saving  power  of  imagination  is  also  characteristic  of  his  mature 
mind,  though  expressed  in  an  ambiguous  manner.  It  is  interesting 
to  know  that  in  the  line  '  The  king  treading  the  purple  calmly  to  his 
death,'  he  was  thinking  of  Agamemnon,  as  this  shows  how  early 
his  love  of  classic  literature  began.  The  allusion  to  Plato  largely 
confirms  this  impression.  The  feeling  for  music  asserts  itself,  though 
in  a  less  spiritual  form  than  it  assumes  in  his  later  works.  The  most 
striking  piece  of  true  biography  which  '  Pauline  '  contains,  is  its  evi- 
dence of  the  young  writer's  reverent  affection  for  Shelley,  whom  he 
idealizes  under  the  name  of  Sun-treader.  An  invocation  to  his 
memory  occupies  three  pages,  beginning  with  the  eighth,  and  is 
renewed  at  the  end  of  the  poem.  *  *  *  The  curious  Latin  quotation  of 
the  preface  is  from  the  works  of  Cornelius  Agrippa,  a  well-known 
professor  of  occult  philosophy,  and  is  indeed  introductory  to  a 
treatise  upon  it,  *  *  *  The  Andromeda  described  as  '  with  the 
speaker,'  is  that  of  Caravaggio,  of  which  Mr.  Browning  possesses  an 
engraving  which  was  always  before  his  eyes  as  he  wrote  his  earlier 
poems." — Mrs.  Orr. 

XLV. 

The  Red  Cotton  Nightcap  Country. 

"  The  real  life  drama,  which  !Mr.  Browning  has  reproduced  under 
this  title,  was  enacted  partly  in  Paris  and  partly  in  a  retired  corner  of 
Normandy,  where  he  spent  the  late  summer  of  1872 ;  and  ended  in  a 
trial  which  had  been  only  a  fortnight  closed,  when  he  supposed  him. 
self  to  be  relating  it.  His  whole  story  is  true,  except  that  in  it  which 
reality  itself  must  have  left  to  the  imagination." — Mrs.  Orr. 


30  ROBERT  BR O  WMNG ' ' ;  P OE TR T. 

"  It  is  the  story  of  Mellario,  the  Paris  jeweler,  and  was  studied  at 
the  place  of  his  ending,  St.  Aubin  in  Normandy,  from  the  law  papers 
used  in  the  suit  concerning  his  will.  It  was  put  in  type  with  all  the 
true  names  of  persons  and  things;  but,  on  a  proof  being  submitted 
bj  Brov;ning  to  his  frier.d,  Lord  Coleridge,  then  littorney-general, 
the  latter  thought  that  an  action  for  libel  might  lie  for  what  was  said 
in  the  poetn,  however  unlikely  it  was  that  such  procedure  would  be 
taken.  Thereupon  fictitious  names  were  substituted." — L.  Br.  S. 
Papers. 

The  possible  friend  and  adviser,  to  whom  Miranda  is  referred,  was 
M.Joseph  Milsand,  who  always  at  that  time  passed  the  bathing  sea- 
son at  St.  Aubin. 


Fifine  at  the  Fair. 


XLVL 


XLVIL 


The  Inn  Album. 

This  poem  is,  in  the  main  outlines,  a  true  story,  that  of  Lord  de 
Ros,  once  a  friend  of  the  great  Duke  of  Wellington  and  about  whom 
there  is  much  in  the  Greville  memoirs.  The  story  made  a  great  sensa- 
tion in  London  over  thirty  years  ago. 

XLVIII. 
Sordello. 

XLIX. 
The  Ring  and  the  Book. 

Note. — Experience  would  indicate  that  the  most  effective  way  of 
studying  the  last  two  is  to  assign  the  lesson  beforehand,  which  in  the 
case  of  "  The  Ring  and  the  Book  "  may  reasonably  cover  a  book ;  this 


ROBER T  BRO  WNING \S  POETR 2'.  31 

to  be  carefully  studied  by  each  individual  at  home;  then,  when  they 
come  together,  to  compare  notes,  and  each  contribute  his  mite  to  the 
general  whole  in  some  such  order  as  follows: — 

1.  Tell  the  Story. 

2.  Its  relation  to  the  preceding  lessons. 

3.  What  new  elements  introduced  into  the  story  by 

this  lesson. 

4.  What  chief  moral  lesson  found  by  each. 

5.  Noblest  passages  and  quotable  lines. 

6.  Difficult  passages. 

7.  Out-of-the-way  words  and  allusions. 

After  such  a  study  as  this,  then  and  only  then  will  the  club  be  pre- 
pared either  to  write  or  to  listen  to  some  papers  upon  general  topics, 
including  a  range  of  tlie  whole  work.  Only  where  classes  are  com- 
paratively small,  of  uniform  grade  of  intelligence  and  socially  familiar 
and  congenial,  is  it  wise  to  undertake  to  read  in  class. 


SHORTER  PROGRAMMES. 

These  short  programmes  are  prepared  for  the  use  of 
those  who  have  not  the  time  or  do  not  desire  to  make  a 
complete  study  of  Browning,  but  would  like  to  gain  some 
knowledge  of  his  poems.  It  is  impossible  to  prepare  any 
partial  list  of  these  poems  that  is  wholly  representative  of 
the  poet  and  his  best  work,  and  it  should  be  borne  in  mind 
that  such  lists  are  necessarily  subject  to  the  particular  men- 
tal bias  and  preference  of  the  individual  preparing  them, 
and  are  thus  fit  matter  for  the  revision  of  any  other  student 
of  Browning.  For  notes  on  the  poems,  see  full  classifi- 
cation. 

With  regard  to  the  classification  of  Browning's  poems,  it 
should  be  said  that  all  classifications  are  more  or  less  arbi- 
trary, and  that  most  of  the  poems  fall  naturally  into  more 


32  ROBER T  BRO  WNING  'S  FOB TR  T. 

than  one  group.  The  reader  need  not  therefore  be  sur- 
prised at  finding  certain  poems  placed  under  different  heads 
in  the  three  programmes. 


PROGRAMME  A. 


I. 

Love  Poems. 

1.  Wedded  Love. 

One  Word  More. 

A  Woman's  Last  Word. 

Any  Wile  to  Any  Husband. 

2.  Love  and  Tragedy. 
The  Last  Ride  Together. 
Youth  and  Art. 

The  Laboratory. 

3.  Love  Lyrics. 
Meeting  at  Night. 
Parting  at  Morning. 
One  Way  of  Love. 
Another  Way  of  Love. 
Love  Among  the  Ruins, 
Natural  Magic,  Masfical  Nature. 
Never  the  Time  and  the  Place. 


Two  in  the  Campagna. 
By  the  Fireside. 
A  Lover's  Quarrel. 


The  Confessional. 
In  a  Balcony. 
James  Lee's  Wife. 

My  Star. 
Love  in  a  Life. 
Life  in  a  Love. 
In  Three  Days. 
In  a  Year. 
The  Worst  of  it. 
Too  Late.      ^ 


IL 

Poems  on  Art. 

Andrea  del  Sarto.    v 
Fra  Lippo  Lippi. 
Old  Pictures  in  Florence. 
The  Guardian  Angel. 
Pictor  Ignotus. 


ROBER  T  BRO  WNING  'S  POE  TR  T.  33 

III. 

Poems  on  Music. 

A  Toccato  of  Galuppi's. 
Master  Hugues  of  Saxe-Gotha. 
Abt  Vogler. 

IV. 

Poems  Illustrating  Browning's  Ideas  of  the  Poetic 

Art. 

How  it  Strikes  a  Contemporar}-. 

House. 

Shop. 

Epilogue,  "  The  Poets  Give  Us  Wine." 

At  the  Mermaid. 

V. 

Poems  of  Early  Christian  Art. 

The  Epistle. 
Death  in  the  Desert. 

VI. 

Poems  of  Immortality  and  Religious  Life. 

La  Saisiaz. 
Christmas  Eve. 
Easter  Day.         , 
Evelyn  Hope.  ^ 
May  and  Death. 
Prospice.       J  , 

Rabbi  Ben  Ezra. 


34  ROBERT  BROWNING'S  POBTRT, 

VII. 

Other  Religious  Poems. 

Caliban  on  Setebos. 
Saul. 

VIII. 

Heroes  and  Heroines. 

The  Patriot.  ^ 

Herv^  Riel.    v 

Echetlos. 

Incident  of  the  French  Camp.  ^ 

The  Lost  Leader. 

IX. 

Jewish  Life  and  Character. 
Holy  Cross  Day. 
Jochanan  Hakkadosh. 
Burial  Privilege  of  Biitdinucci. 

X. 

Psychological. 

[Only  a  few  of  the  most  striking-  short  poems  have  been  placed  under  this  head 
which  IS  descriptive  in  a  certain  sense  of  all  that  Browning  ever  wrote.] 

Ned  Bratts. 

Halbert  and  Hob. 

Martin  Relph. 

Soliloquy  of  the  Spanish  Cloister. 

Gold  Hair. 

A  Light  Woman. 

The  Statue  and  the  Bust. 


ROBER  T  BRO  WNING  'S  ROE  TR  T.  35 

PROGRAMME  B. 

This  programme  is  made  up  of  some  of  the  long  single 
poems  and  a  few  of  the  dramas,  and  necessarilv  includes 
two  or  three  mentioned  in  the  foregoing  programmes. 

I.    Bishop  Blougram's  Apology. 


II. 

Caliban  on  Setebos. 

III. 

Saul. 

IV. 

James  Lee's  Wife. 

V. 

In  a  Balcony. 

VI. 

Fifine  at  the  Fair. 

VII. 

A  Blot  in  the  'Scutcheon. 

VIII. 

Martin  Relph. 

IX. 

The  Flight  of  the  Duchess. 

X. 

Ivan  Ivanovitch. 

XL 

Luria. 

XII. 

A  Soul's  Tragedy. 

XIII. 

Pippa  Passes. 

XIV. 

Paracelsus. 

CHRONOLOGICAL  LIST 

OF 

ROBERT  BROWNING'S   WORKS, 

Born  1812,  at  Camberwell,  England. 


1833.  Pauline. 

1835.  Paracelsus. 

1837.  Strafford. 

1840.  Sordello. 


3^  ROBER  T  BRO  WNING  'S  FOB TR  2". 

1841.  Pippa  Passes.     (Bells  and  Pomegranates,  No.  I.) 

1842.  King  Victor  and  King  Charles.     (B.  and  P.  No.  II. 

1842.  Dramatic  Lyrics.     (B.  and  P.  No.  III.) 

Cavalier  Tunes. 

Marching  along. 

Give  a  Rouse. 

Mj  Wife  Gertrude. 
Italy  and  France. 

Italy;  or,  My  Last  Duchess. 

France ;  or,  Count  Gismond. 
Camp  and  Cloister. 

Camp  (French.) 

Cloister  (Spanish.) 
In  a  Gondola. 
Artemis  Prologuizes. 
Waring. 
Queen  Worship. 

Rudel  and  the  Lady  of  Tripoli. 

Christina. 
Mad-House  Cell. 

Johannes  Agricola. 

Porphyria. 
Through  the  Metidja. 
The  Pied  Piper  of  Hamelin.         ^ 

1843.  Return  of  the  Druses.     (B.  and  P.  No.  IV.) 

1843.  A  Blot  in  the  'Scutcheon.     (B.  and  P.  No.  V.) 

1844.  Colombe's  Birthday.     (B.  and  P.  No.  VI.) 
1844-5.     Seven  Poems  in  "  Hood's  Magazine." 

The  Laboratory. 

Claret. 

Tokay. 

Sibrandus  Schnafnaburgensis. 

The  Boy  and  the  Angel. 

The  Tomb  at  St.  Praxed's, 

The  Flight  of  the  Duchess. 


ROB  BR  T  BRO  WNING  \S  POETR  T.  37 

I  S45.     Dramatic  Romances  and  Lyrics.  (B.  and  P.  No.VII. 

How  Thej  Brought  the  Good  News. 

Pictor  Ignotus. 

Italy  in  England. 

England  in  Italy. 

The  Lost  Leader.      ' 

The  Lost  Mistress. 

Home  Thoughts  from  Abroad. 

The  Confessional, 

Earth's  Immortalities. 

Song,  "  Nay,  but  you." 

Night  and  Morning. 

Saul. 

Time's  Revenges. 

The  Glove. 

"845.  k"soul's  Tragedy,  }  (B-  -^  P.  No.  VTII.) 

1846.  Married  to  Elizabeth  Barrett. 

1849.  Revised  his  printed  poems. 

1850.  Christmas  Eve  and  Easter  Day. 
1852.  Prose  Essay  on  Shelley. 

1855.     ^^^  ^^^  Women. 

Series  I . 

Love  Among  the  Ruins,     v  A  Pretty  Woman. 

A  Lover's  Quarrel.  Childe  Roland. 

Evelyn  Hope.  Respectability. 

Up  at  a  Villa — Down  in  the  City.  A  Light  Woman. 

A  Woman's  Last  Word.  The  Statue  and  the  Bust. 

Fra  Lippo  Lippi.  Love  in  a  Life. 

A  Toccata  of  Galluppi's.  Life  in  a  Love. 

By  the  Fireside.  Instans  Tvrannus. 

Any  Wife  to  Any  Husband.  My  Star. 

An  Epistle  of  Karshish.  The  Last  Ride  Together. 

A  Serenade  at  the  Villa.  The  Patriot. 

How  it  Strikes  a  Contemporary.  Memorabilia. 

Master  Hugues  of  Saxe  Gotha.  Mesmerism. 
Bishop  Blougram's  Apology. 


38  ROBER T  BRO  V/NING  'S  POE  TR  T. 

Series  II. 

Andrea  del  Sarto.  Before. 

After.  In  Three  Days. 

In  a  Year.  Old  Pictures  in  Florence. 

In  a  Balcony.  Saul. 

De  Gustibus.  Women  and  Roses. 

Protus.  Holy-Cross  Day. 

The  Guardian  Angel.  Cleon. 

The  Twins.  Popularity. 

The  Heretic's  Tragedy.  Two  in  the  Campagna. 

A  Grammarian's  Funeral.  One  Way  of  Love. 

Another  Way  of  Love.  Transcendentalism. 

Misconceptions.  One  Word  More. 

1 86 1.     Death  of  Mrs.  Browning. 
1864.     Dramatis  Personae. 

James  Lee. 

Gold  Hair. 

The  Worst  of  It. 

Dis  Aliter  Visum. 

Too  Late. 

Abt  Vogler. 

Rabbi  Ben  Ezra. 

A  Death  in  the  Desert. 

Caliban  Upon  Setebos. 

Confessions. 

Prospice. 

Youth  and  Art. 

A  Face. 

A  Likeness. 

Mr.  Sludge. 

Apparent  Failure. 

Epilogue. 

1868-9.     The  Ring  and  the  Book. 

1871.     Herv^  Riel. 

1871.      Balaustion's  Adventure. 

1871.     Prince  Hohenstiel-Schwangau. 


ROBERT  BROWNING'S  POETRT.  39 

1872.  Fifine  at  the  Fair. 

1873.  Red  Cotton  Night- Cap  Country. 

1875.  Aristophanes'  Apology. 
1S75.     The  Imx  Album. 

1876.  Pacchiarotto  and  Other  Poems. 

Prologue. 
t         Pacchiarotto. 

At  the  Mermaid. 

House. 

Shop. 

Pisgah  Sights,  I  and  II. 

Fears  and  Scruples. 

Natural  Magic. 

Magical  Nature. 

Bifurcation. 

Numpholeptos. 

Appearances. 

St.  Martin's  Summer. 

A  Forgiveness. 

Cenciaja. 

Filippo  Baldinucci. 

Epilogue. 

1877.  Agamemnon. 
187S.     La  Saisiaz. 

The  Two  Poets  of  Croisic. 
1880.     Dramatic  Idyls. 

Series  I. 
Martin  Relph.  Pheidippides. 

Halbertand  Hob.  Ivan  Ivanovitch. 

Tray.  Ned  Bratts. 

Series  IE 
Proem.                                               Echetlos. 
Clive.                                                   Muleykeh. 
Pietro  of  Abano.  Doctor . 


Pan  and  Luna.  Epilogue, 


40  ROBERT  BROWNING'S  POETRT, 

1883.    Jocoseria. 

Wanting  is — What? 
Donald. 

Solomon  and  Balkis. 
,^,    Cristina  and  Monaldeschi. 
^,     Mary  Wolstonecroft  and  Fuseli. 
^^    Adam,  Lilith  and  Eve. 
Ixion. 

Jochanan  Hakkadosh. 
\^'    Never  the  Time  and  the  Place. 
V.,''    Pambo. 
,  1885.     Ferishtah's  Fancies. 

HELPS  TO  THE  STUDY  OF  BROWNING. 


Richard  Grant  White's  saying,  that  the  way  to  read 
Shakespeare  is  to  read  him,  is  good  advice  and  applicable 
to  the  one  who  would  make  a  study  of  Robert  Browning. 
Most  of  the  critical  studies  published  are  found  m  maga- 
zines and  reviews,  a  full  list  of  which  may  be  found  in 
Poole's  Index.  Among  the  available  books  that  may  be 
of  use  are  the  following: 

Browning  Society  Papers.     See  page  41. 

Handbook  to  the  Works  of  Robert  Browning,  by  Mrs.  Sutherland 
Orr. 

Stories  from  Robert  Browning,  by  Frederic  May  Holland. 

See  also  the  essays  on  Browning  in  "Obiter  Dicta,"  Stedman's  "Vic- 
torian Poets,"  George  W.  Cooke's  "  Poets  and  Problems  "  and  Pro- 
fessor Dowden's  "  Studies  in  Literature." 


BROWNING  SOCIETIES. 


The  so-called  Browning  movement  was  inaugurated  by 
the  organization  of  the  London  Browning  Society  in  July, 
1 88 1,  and  includes  men  of  the  highest  rank  and  scholarship 
among  its  members.  Through  its  publications  and  other 
activities  it  has  done  much  effective  work  in  awakening  an 
interest  in  these  writings  and  encouraging  organizations  for 
their  study.  Jenkin  Lloyd  Jones,  3939  Langley  avenue, 
Chicago,  is  the  local  Honorary  Secretary  of  this  society. 

In Prof.  Corson,  of  Cornell   University,  organized 

a  Browning  Society  at  Ithaca,  N.  Y.  Prof.  Levi  Thaxter 
previous  to  this  time  had  had  various  classes  for  the  study 
of  Robert  Browning  in  and  around  Boston.  In  Novem- 
ber, 1S82,  the  first  Browning  club  was  organized  in  Chi- 
cago, which  in  four  years'  work  has  included  in  its  study 
all  his  writings.  From  this  club,  more  or  less  directly, 
seven  or  eight  other  circles  have  sprung  up  in  the  city  and 
vicinity,  and  perhaps  as  many  more  in  other  cities  through- 
out the  west.  On  the  fourteenth  of  April,  1886,  the  Chi- 
cago workers  organized  themselves  into  the  Chicago 
Browning  Society,  for  the  purpose  of  mutual  help  and  with 
the  hope  of  encouraging  wider  study.  The  society  will 
hold  monthly  meetings  during  winter  months,  and  will 
from  time  to  time  publish  such  helps  as  its  funds  will  war- 
rant, this  pamphlet  being  the  first  of  the  series.  See  pro- 
gramme for  this  season,  page  50.  It  has  arranged  with 
Charles  H.  Kerr  &  Co.,  175  Dearborn  street,  to  become  its 
publishers.  This  firm  is  also  agent  for  the  London  Society, 
and  is  prepared  to  fill  any  orders  for  Browning  material. 
Correspondence  solicited. 

(41) 


RULES  FOR  LITERARY  CLUBS. 


The  following  "  ten  commandments"  for  the  guidance 
of  literary  studies  have  been  found  helpful,  and  are  here 
reprinted  as  a  suggestion  to  new  clubs. 

I. 
Aim  to  study,  not  to  create,  literature. 

II. 
Avoid  red  tape  and  parliamentary  slang. 

III. 
Let  but  one  talk  at  a  time,  and  that  one  talk  only  of  the  matter  in 
hand. 

IV. 
Start  no  side  conferences :  whispering  is  poor  wisdom  and  bad  man- 
ners. 

V. 

Come  prepared.     Let  the  work  be  laid  out  systematically  in  deliber- 
ate courses  of  reading  and  study. 

VI. 

Let  papers  be  short.     Beware  of  long  quotations.     "  Brevity  is  the 
soul  of  wit." 

VIL 
Be  as  willing  to  expose  ignorance  as  to  parade  knowledge. 

VIII. 
Aim  not  to  exhaust,  but  to  open  the  theme.      Incite  curiosity.     Pro- 
voke home  reading. 

IX. 

Begin  and  close  to  the  minute. 

X. 
Meet  all  discouragements  with  grit  and  industry.     Rise  superior  to 
numbers ;  for  the  kingdom  of  culture,  like  the  kingdom  of  God, 
comes  without  observation. 

(42) 


BROWNING  AND  THE  CRITICS. 


If  Browning  has  had  his  detractors  he  has  also  always 
had  his  admirers,  men  of  genius  and  wide  attainment  like 
himself,  who  are  quick  to  recognize  in  him  one  of  the  lead- 
ing and  most  prolific  minds  of  the  age.  Such  intelligent 
and  generous  commendation  amply  atones  for  the  loss  of 
popular  applause.  Below  is  a  short  list  of  extracts  from 
leading  critics,  selected  for  the  most  part  from  the  trial  list 
of  criticisms  published  in  the  Browning  Society  Papers, 
parts  I  and  II. 

*'  To  be  a  poet  is  to  have  a  soul  so  quick  to  discern  that  no  shade  of 
quality  escapes  it,  and  so  quick  to  feel  that  discernment  is  but  a  hand 
playing  with  finely  ordered  variety  on  the  chord  of  emotion,  a  soul  in 
which  knowledge  passes  instantaneously  into  feeling,  and  feeling 
flashes  back  as  a  new  organ  of  knowledge." — George  Eliot  on  Robert 
Broivning. 

"  It  is  some  time  since  we  read  a  work  of  more  unequivocal  power 
than  '  Paracelsus.'  We  conclude  that  its  author  is  a  young  man,  as  we 
do  not  recollect  his  having  published  before.  If  so,  we  may  safely 
predict  for  him  a  brilliant  career,  *  *  *  if  he  continues  true  to  the 
promise  of  his  genius.  He  possesses  all  the  elements  of  a  fine  poet." 
— yokn  Forster^  in  Examiner,  Sej>t.,  ^^35- 

"Without  the  slightest  hesitation  we  name  Robert  Browning  at 
once  with  Shelley,  Coleridge  and  Wordsworth.  *  *  *  He  has  in 
himself  all  the  elements  of  a  great  poet,  philosophical  as  well  as 
dramatic." — ibid,  in  Monthly  Magazine,  183b. 

"  By  far  the  richest  nature  of  our  times." — y.  R.  Lovjell  before  the 
Bro^^vmng  Society. 

"  I  would  rather  have  written  the  "  Blot  in  the  'Scutcheon  "  than 
any  other  work  of  modern  times.  There  is  no  other  man  living  who 
could  produce  such  a  work." — Charles  Dickens. 

(43) 


44 


ROBERT  BROWNING'S  POETRY. 


"  Browning !  Since  Chaucer  was  alive  and  hale, 
No  man  has  walked  along  our  road  with  step 
So  active,  so  inquiring  eje,  or  tongue 
So  varied  in  discourse." 

— From  Sonnet  by  W.  S.  Landor. 

"  Everything  Browningish  is  found  here — the  legal  jauntiness,  the 
knitted  argumentation,  the  cunning  prying  into  detail,  the  suppressed 
tenderness,  the  humanity,  the  salt  intellectual  humor.  *  *  Whatever 
else  may  be  said  of  Mr.  Browning  and  his  work  by  way  of  criticism,  it 
will  be  admitted  on  all  hands  that  noxvhere  in  literature  can  be  found  a 
man  and  a  ivork  more  fascinating  in  their  ivay.  As  for  the  man,  he  was 
crowned  long  ago,  and  we  are  not  one  of  those  who  grumble  because 
one  king  has  a  better  seat  than  another,  an  easier  cushion,  a  finer  light 
in  the  great  temple.  A  king  is  a  king  and  each  will  choose  his  place." 
— Robert  Buchanan  on  "  The  Ring  and  the  Book^''  in  Athenceum^  Dec.  i86S. 

"  Unerring  in  every  sentence;  always  vital,  right,  profound.  *  * 
In  a  single  poem,  'The  Bishop  Orders  his  Tomb,'  Browning  tells 
nearly  all  that  I  have  said  of  the  central  Renaissance  in  thirty  pages  of 
*  Stones  of  Venice.' " — RusUn. 

*'  Now  if  there  is  any  great  quality  more  perceptible  than  another 
in  Mr.  Browning's  intellect,  it  is  his  decisive  and  incisive  quality  of 
thought,  his  sureness  and  intensity  of  perception,  his  rapid  and 
trenchant  resolution  of  aim.  To  charge  him  with  obscurity  is  about 
as  correct  as  to  call  Lynceus  purblind  or  to  complain  of  the  slowness 
of  the  telegraphic  wires.  He  is  something  too  much  the  reverse  of 
obscure  ;  he  is  too  brilliant  and  subtle  for  the  ready  reader  of  a  ready 
writer  to  follow  with  any  certainty  the  track  of  an  intelligence  which 
moves  with  such  incessant  rapidity." — A.  C.  Sivinburne^  in  introduc- 
tion to  'works  of  George  Chapna7i. 

"  Of  all  writers  since  Dante  we  should  speak  of  Browning  as  the 
poet  of  suffering,  suffering  on  a  great  scale,  though  impelled  and  pas- 
sion-wrought."— Eclectic  and  Congregational  Review^  Dec.^  1868. 

"  To  blend  a  profound  knowledge  of  human  nature,  a  keen  percep- 
tion of  the  awful  problem  of  human  destiny,  with  the  conservation 
of  a  joyous  human  spirit,  to  know  and  not  despair  of  them,  to  battle 
with  one's  spiritual  foes  and  not  be  broken  by  them  is  given  only  to 
the  very  strong.  This  is  to  be  a  valiant  and  unvanquished  soldier  of 
humanity." — Edinburgh  Review^  J^^^y-,  ^S6g. 


ROBERT  BROWMNG'S  POETRT.  45 

"  He  is  chiefly  dear  to  the  age  because  having  been  racked  with  its 
doubts,  stretched  upon  the  mental  torture  wheels  of  its  despair,  hav- 
ing sounded  cynicism  and  pessimism  to  their  depths,  he  sometimes 
firmly  and  sometimes  faintly  trusts  the  larger  hope,  but  always,  in  the 
last  analysis  and  residuum  of  theught,  trusts.  Coming  from  such  a 
mind,  such  a  buoyant  message  this  vexed  and  storm-tossed  age  will 
not  willingly  let  die." — H.  R.  Haiveis. 

"  He  is  the  intellectual  phenomenon  of  the  last  half  century,  even 
if  he  is  not  the  poetical  aloe  of  modern  English  literature.  His  like 
we  have  never  seen  before.  *  *  *  In  all  true  poetry  the  form  of  the 
thought  is  part  of  the  thought,  and  never  was  this  absolute  law  of 
literary  aesthetics  more  flagrantly  illustrated  than  in  the  poetry  of  Rob- 
ert Browning.  To  say  that  Browning  is  the  greatest  dramatic  poet 
since  Shakespeare  is  to  say  that  he  is  the  greatest  poet,  most  excellent 
in  what  is  the  highest  form  of  imaginative  composition,  because  it  is 
the  most  creative." — Richard  Grant  White. 

"  In  considering  whether  a  poet  is  intelligible  ard  lucid  we  ought 
not  to  grope  and  grub  about  his  work  in  search  of  obscurities  and 
oddities,  but  should,  in  the  first  instance  at  all  events,  attempt  to  re- 
gard his  whole  scope  and  range,  to  form  some  estimate,  if  we  can,  of 
his  general  purport  and  effect,  asking  ourselves  how  are  we  the  better 
for  him,  has  he  quickened  any  passion,  lightened  any  burden,  purified 
any  taste,  does  he  play  any  real  part  in  our  lives. ^  And  if  we  are 
compelled  to  answer  "Yes"  to  such  questions,  it  is  both  folly  and 
ingratitude  to  complain  of  obscurity." — Augustine  Birrell  in  "  Obiter 
Dictar 


LECTURES  AND  PAPERS. 


The  following  papers  and  lectures;  are  probably  available,  with 
the  necessary  restrictions  of  time  and  place,  to  circles,  classes  or 
clubs  or  popular  audiences  interested  in  the  study  of  Browning. 
Prof.  Louis  J.  Block,  of  the  Douglas  school,  Chicago,  Rev.  David 
Utter,  115  Twenty-third  street,  and  Jenkin  Lloyd  Jones,  3939  Lang- 
ley  avenue,  have  lectures  on  the  general  suljject  of  Browning  and 
his  writings.  Mr.  Utter  also  gives  special  interpretations  and  read- 
ings. Mr.  Jones  has  special  papers  on  *'  Fifine  at  the  Fair,"  "  Christ- 
mas Eve  and  Easter  Day,"  "A  Soul's  Tragedy,"  "  The  Religion  of 
Browning,"  and  will  give  conversations,  help  organize  clubs,  etc. 

Mrs.  S-  C.  LI  Jones,  No.  3939  Langley  avenue,  has  papers  on 
*'  Luria"  and  '•  The  Tragedies  of  Love." 

Mrs  E  T.  Leonard,  No.  175  Dearborn  street,  has  papers  on 
"Mildred  Tresham,"  "  Djabal"  and  "Browning's  Measure  of  Life 
and  his  Standard  of  Success." 

Mrs.  Emma  E.  Marean,  No.  3619  Ellis  avenue,  has  papers  on 
"The  Poet- pair,"  •*  A  Study  of  Clara"  (in  the  "  Red  Cotton  Night- 
Cap  Country,")  Ferishtah's  Fancies,"  and  '•  Browning's  Interpretation 
of  the  Poet's  Mission." 

Miss  Mary  E.  Burt,  3410  Rhodes  avenue,  has  a  paper  on  "  Sor- 
dello." 

Mrs  Anna  B  McMahan,  of  Quincy,  111.,  gives  lectures  and 
interpretations  of  the  writings  of  Robert  Browning. 

James  Colgrove,  J34  Wabash  avenue,  has  made  a  special  study  of 
'Old  Pictures  in  Florence,"  and  has  a  collection  of  illustrative 
pictures. 

(46) 


THE  CHICAGO  BROWNING  SOCIETY. 


The  first  club  for  the  stu.iy  of  Robert  Browning's  writings  was 
organized  in  Chicago  in  the  autumn  of  1SS2.  This  chib  has  con- 
tinued its  systematic  course  of  study  of  these  writings  for  the  last 
four  years,  and  from  this  more  or  less  directly  have  sprung  seven  or 
eight  other  circles  in  this  city  and  immediate  vicinity,  and  perhaps  as 
many  more  in  a  like  manner  throughout  the  west.  Believing  that 
the  time  had  come  when  these  unrelated  workers  might  profitably 
accomplish  something  in  a  co-operative  way,  a  call  was  issued, 
signed  by  fifty  ladies  and  gentlemen,  most  of  them  members  of  these 
Chicago  Browning  Circles,  for  a  meeting  to  be  held  in  the  parlors  of 
the  Church  of  the  Messiah,  April  14,  18S6.  Over  a  hundred  persons 
were  present.  A  paper  was  read  on  the  v^ritings  of  R  obert  Browning 
by  Prof.  L.  J.  Block;  readings  were  given  by  Mrs.  F.  W.  Parker  and 
David  Utter,  followed  by  a  song  from  G.  E.  Dav/son,  Esq ;  after  which 
the  organization  was  perfected  as  below. 

The  officers  were  instructed  to  arrange  for  the  beginning  of  the 
active  work  of  the  society  in  the  autumn  of  1886. 


CONSTITUTION. 


Article  I.  The  name  of  this  Association  shall  be  the  Chicago 
Browning  Society. 

Article  II.  The  object  of  this  Society  shall  be  to  prom.ote  the 
reading  and  study  of  Robert  Browning's  works,  the  publication  of 
helps  in  such  study,  and  other  matters  calculated  to  awaken  a  v.ider 
interest  in  this  poet. 

Article  III.  Any  person  interested  may  become  an  annual 
member  by  the  payment  of  two  dollars  and  fifty  cents  ($2.50),  the 
payment  of  which  shall  give  each  member  the  right  to  attend  all 

(47) 


48  ROBERT  BROWNING'S  POETRT. 

regular  meetings  of  the  societj^  and  to  a  copy  of  all  the  publications 
issued  during  the  year.  Any  one  may  become  a  life  member  of  this 
society  by  the  payment  at  one  time  of  twenty-five  dollars  ($25.00). 

Article  IV.  The  officers  of  this  society  shall  be  a  president; 
three  vice-presidents,  a  secretary,  a  treasurer,  and  nine  other  persons, 
forming  an  executive  committee,  three  of  which  shall  constitute 
a  sub-committee  on  publication.  These  officers  shall  be  elected 
annually,  their  duties  shall  be  such  as  usually  devolve  upon  such 
officers  in  similar  societies ;  they  shall  hold  office  until  their  successors 
are  chosen,  and  the  executive  committee  shall  have  power  to  fill 
vacancies  in  the  committee,  to  call  meetings,  etc.,  and  to  them  shall 
be  entrusted  the  general  management  of  the  affairs  of  the  society, 
provided  a  majority  shall  be  necessary  to  form  a  quorum  for  the 
transaction  of  business. 

Article  V.  The  Society  shall  hold  at  least  four  meetings  in 
each  3'ear,  the  annual  meeting  being  on  the  second  Tuesday  in  April, 
at  which  time  the  annual  dues  must  be  paid. 

Article  VI.  This  Constitution  may  be  amended  by  a  majority 
vote  at  any  regular  meeting,  providing  two  months  notice  of  the  same 
be  sent  to  each  member  through  post-office,  or  otherwise. 


OFFICERS    FOR    1886-7. 


President — Jenkin  Lloyd  Jones. 

Vice-Prestdettts — Mrs.  Wirt  Dexter,  Mrs.  Wm.  L.  McCormick, 
Mrs.  Celia  P.  Woolley. 

Seeretary — Mrs.  Ellen  Mitchell,  44  Sixteenth  Street. 

Treasurer — Mrs.  Reginald  de  Koven,  99  Pearson  Street. 
Directors. 
David  Utter,  Louis  J.  Block,  James  Colegrove, 

Miss  Grace  T.  Howe,     Mrs.  Potter  Palmer,     Mrs.  Emma  E.  Marean, 
Mrs.  H.  A.  Johnson,       Mrs.  A.  N.  Eddy,  Mrs.  F.  S.  Parker. 

Cotmnittee  on  Publication. 
Rev.  David  Utter,      Mrs.  Emma  E,  Marean,       Mrs.  C.  P.  Woolley. 


ROBER  T  BRO  WNING  'S  POE  TR  T,  49 

CHARTER    MEMBERS. 


Mrs.  Mary  N.  Adams, 
Miss  Mary  E.  Burt, 
Mrs.  Amanda  N.  Beiss, 
Mrs.  H.  J.  Beckwith, 
Mrs.  J.  C.  Brooks, 
Prof.  L.  J.  Block, 
MissE.  W.  Brown, 
James  Colegrove, 
Mrs.  a.  J .  Caton, 
Mrs.  John  M.  Clark, 
Miss  L.  M.  Dunning, 
Mrs.  Wirt  Dexter, 
Mrs.  Ruth  B.  Ewing, 
Mrs.  a.  N.  Eddy, 
C.  Norman  Fay, 
Chas.  a.  Gregory, 
Mrs.  Chas.  A.  Gregory, 
Robert  J.  Hendricks, 
Franklin  H.  Head, 
Mrs.  John  J.  Herrick, 
Chas.  D.  Hamill, 
Mrs.  Susan  W.  Hamill, 
Mrs.  Ellen  Henrotin, 
Miss  Grace  Howe, 
Miss  May  Henderson, 
Jenkin  Lloyd  Jones, 
Mrs.  S.  C.  Lloyd  Jones, 
Mrs.  Frank  Johnson, 
Mr.  Hosmkr  A.Johnson, 
Mr.  John  H.  Jewett, 
Mrs.  John  H.  Jewett, 
Charles  H.  Kerr, 
Mrs.  E.  W.  Kohlsaat 


Reginald  deKoven, 

Mrs.  R.  de  Koven, 

Miss  Susie  King, 

William  S.  Lord, 

Miss  Martha  J  .  L  oudon. 

Miss  Mary'  L.  Lord, 

Miss  Julia  Leavens, 

C.  P.  Morgan, 

Mrs.  Emma  E.  Marean, 

Mrs.  Anna  Morgan. 

Mrs.  W.  T.  McCormick, 

Mrs.  R.  Hall  McCormick, 

Mrs.  Ellen  Mitchell, 

Mrs.  Franklin  MacVeagh, 

Mr.  Franklin  MacVeagh, 

Mr.  a.  R.  Parker, 

Mrs.  F.  S.  Parker, 

Mr.  F.  W.  Parker, 

Mrs.  Alice  H.  Putnam, 

Mrs.  Potter  Palmer, 

Potter  Palmer, 

Mrs.  R.  W.  Patterson,  jr., 

Mrs.  D.  F.  Sellbridge, 

B.  D.  Slocum, 

Miss  Helen  D.  Street, 

Miss  Carrie  Smith, 

Mrs  a.  T.  Spalding, 

Mrs.  a.  N.  Stevenson, 

Laura  J.  Tisdale, 

Rev.  David  Utter, 

Miss  Jennie  A.  Willcox, 

Mrs.  Celia  P.  "Woolley, 

Mrs  J.  M.  Walker. 


50  ROBERT  BROWNING  S  POETRT. 

PLAN   OF    WORK    FOR    1S86-7. 


The  meetings  of  this  Society  Vvill  be  held  the  second  Tuesday  of 
each  month  at  eight  o'clock  p.  m.,  beginning  in  November  and  end- 
ing in  May.  Three  of  these  will  be  public  meetings,  four  for  study 
and  for  members  only.  The  following  is  the  programme  for  the 
coming  season. 

NOVEMBER  (PIBLIC). 

Introductory  Meeting — paper  by  Rev.  Jenkin  Lloyd  Jones. 

DECEMBER. 

Subject  to  be  announced. 

JANUARY  (public). 

Reading  of  one  of  Browning's  plays  by  members  of  the 
Society. 

FEBRUARY. 

Browning's  Interpretation  of  Old  Age — paper  by  Prof.  David 
Swing. 

MARCH  (public). 

Dramatic  Performance  by  members  of  the  Society. 


Annual  Meeting. 


Four    papers  on    Ivan    Ivanovitch — writers,   Mrs.   Dexter,  Mrs. 
Mitchell,  Mr.  Head,  Mr.  Gilbert. 

Due  notice  of  the  place  of  meeting  will  be  given. 


Applications  for  membership  should  be  made  to  the  Treasurer. 


KOBERT  BROWNING'S  POEMS. 


POEMS  AND  DRAMAS.    In 

two  volumes,  i6mo,  $3.00. 

Many  English  drr.mas  have  been  ^vrit- 
,  ten  within  a  iev:  years,  the  authors  of 
which  h;ive  established  their  claim  to 
the  title  of  poet.  But  it  is  only  in  Mr. 
Browning-  that  we  find  enough  of  fresh- 
ness, vigor,  grasp,  and  of  that  clear  in- 
sight and  conception  ■^"hich  enable  the 
artist  to  construct  characters  from  w^ith- 
in,  and  so  to  make  them  real  things,  and 
not  images,  as  to  warrant  our  granting 
the  honor  due  to  the  dramatist.— James 
Russell  'Lowell,  in  North  America fi 
Review. 

FIFINE  AT  THE  FAIR; 
PRINCE  HOHENSTIEL- 
SCHWANGAU  ;  HERVE 
RIEL.     i6mo,  $1.50. 

SORDELLO,  Strafford,  Christ- 
mas Eve,  and  Easter  Day. 
i6mo,  $1.50. 

Next  to  Tennyson,  we  hardly  know 
of  another  English  poet  who  can  be 
compared  with  Browning.  —  E.  P. 
Whipi'lj:. 

DRAMATIS  PERSONS. 
i6mo,  $1.50. 

MEN  AND  WOMEN.  i6mo, 
$1.50. 

THE  INN  ALBUM.  i6mo, 
$1.50. 

THE  RING  AND  THE  BOOK. 


Beyond  all  parallel  the  supremest  po- 
etical achievement  of  our  time.  ,  .  .  .  . 


The  most  precious  and  profound  spir- 
itual treasiu'e  that  England  has  produced 
since  the  days  of  Shakespeare. — London 
AthencEuni. 


BALAUSTION'S  ADVEN- 
TURE.    i6mo,  $1.50. 

If  the  modern  reader  wishes  to 
breathe  the  spirit  of  the  old  Greek,  to 
feel,  too,  that  "  beauty  making  beautiful 
old  rhj'me,"  he  must  read  the  story  of 
"  Balaustion's  Adventure." —  Westmin- 
tfcr  Review. 

PACCHIAROTTO,  and  Other 

Poems.     i6ino,  $1.50. 
JOCOSERIA.     i6mo,  $1.00. 

FERISHTAH'S       FANCIES. 

i6mo,  $1.00. 
RED-COTTON  NIGHT-CAP 

COUNTRY;    or    Turf     and 

Towers.     i6mo,  $1.50. 

Some  of  the  lines  are  wonderfully 
powerful,   and  some  of  the  scenes  are 

remarkably  vivid It  is  a  tale  of 

passion  and  superstition, — of  love  the 
most  intense,  with  doubt  and  fear  and 
sacrifice  the  most  appalling. — NevjTork 
Graphic. 

AGAMEMNON,  LA  SAISI- 
A.Z,  TWO  POETS  OF  CRO- 
ISIC,  PAULINE,  AND 
DRAMATIC  IDYLS  (First 
and  Second  Series).  i6mo, 
$1.50. 

WORKS.  New  Edition.  In 
eight  volumes.  Crown  8vo, 
gilt  top,  S13.00;  half  calf, 
$22.50.     {Sold  only  in  sets.^ 

JOCOSERIA.  Uniform  with 
New  Edition  of  Works.  Crown 
8vo,  gilt  top,  $1.00. 

FERISHTAH'S  FANCIES, 
Uniform  with  above.  Crown 
8vo,  gilt  top,  $1.00. 


*^*  For  sale  by  all  Bookseller's.     Se?it^  post-paid,  on  receipt  of  price 
by  the  Publishers., 

HOUGHTON,  MIFFLIN  AND  COMPANY, 

4  Park  St.,  Boston;  ii  East  17TH  St.,  New  York. 


ROBERT  BROWNING. 


We  have  by  a  recent  arrangement  become  Chicago  agents 

for  the  London  Browning    Society's  publications,  and  invite 

attention  to  the  following  list  of  pamphlets  which  we  have 

now  on  hand. 

MONTHLY  ABSTRACTS   OF  THE   PROCEEDINGS  OF  THE 

BROWNING   SOCIETY. 

Leaflets  of  four  to  twelve  pages  each,  giving  reports  of  the 
informal  discussions  of  papers  at  the  London  Browning  Soci- 
ety. Twenty-four  numbers  are  now  on  hand,  and  will  be 
mailed  to  any  address  for  $1.00.  Ten  numbers,  50  cents.  All 
these  Abstracts,  with  other  matter  of  interest,  are  included  in  the 

BROWNING  SOCIETY  PAPERS. 

Parts  I,  II,  III,  IV,  V  and  VII  are  now  ready.  Price  per 
part,  to  non-members,  $2.50  postpaid.  We  have  also  Part  I 
of  the 

ILLUSTRATIONS  TO  BROWNING'S  POEMS, 

the  price  of  which  is  $2.50.  Any  of  the  above  can  be  secured 
at  half  price  by  acquiring 

ANNUAL  MEMBERSHIP  IN  THE  LONDON   SOCIETY, 

which  further  entitles  the  member  to  two  copies  of  all  the 
publications  issued  by  the  society  during  the  current  year. 
Membership  fees,  $5.50,  which  may  be  remitted  through  us. 

CHICAGO    PUBLICATIONS. 

Robert  Browning's  Poetry.  Outline  studies  published  for 
the  Chicago  Browning  Society.  Paper,  25  cents;  cloth,  50 
cents;  postpaid. 

" Seed  Thoughts'"  from  Browning  and  others.  Selected  bv 
Mary  E.  Burt.    Paper,  62  pages,  decorated  cover,  30c.,  postpaid. 

Browning's  Selected  Poetns.  Red  Line  edition,  full  gilt, 
$1.00,  postpaid. 

Browning's  Women.  By  Mary  E.  Burt,  $1.00,  postpaid. 
Ready  in  December. 

CHARLES   H.  KERR  &  CO.,    PUBLISHERS, 
175  Dearborn  Street,  ckicago. 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 

on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 

Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


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Berkeley 


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